Q & A with Allan McNish

Allan McNish: "They were very quick. Stephane Sarrazin's laptime was very good. He came straight out of the box and did a 3:25 on his first lap, and then a 3:23 on his second. There is no way you can say they were anything other than impressive, and on fire!

"But we have seen this same picture before, their one lap performance is excellent. I think they probably excelled here because anything sub-3:20 is, I think, the fastest anyone has ever been around here since they put the chicanes on the Mulsanne straight.

"But also, our time is a quite a bit ahead of where we were last year, so we have definitely improved the car to the same levels as we had expected, and their race pace is roughly where we expect as well. When it comes to running in the night, we are definitely closer again. So I would say as the weekend goes forward we will just edge closer and closer to their lap times."

Q. Towards the end when the oil was on the track and things started getting mixed up, the time difference didn't seem so large.

AM: "I did one lap in the dark at the end that was a 3:29, and that was in a bit of traffic, so I know I can go quite a chunk quicker. I also know that come this evening we will be able to go quicker again. And I think on that side of things it's a known scenario for us. We will adapt the car for it.

"We had a lot of focus on race set-up, and we made sure we got through the basics of the programme that normally we would have done at the test day as well. So there is a lot of stuff that we are trying to finalise now that we should have done last Sunday, but because of the weather there was just no chance at all.

"We've got to keep an eye on the weather as well because the forecast for the weekend is not perfect."

Q. There are some suggestions it might be bad for second qualifying as well.

AM: "If it rains today, we will run a little bit in the wet. But through the race it becomes changeable and then you have got to draw on your experiences from before, and we have pretty good experience of what this car is like in the wet. Not just here, but also at Mosport in the States and other high-speed circuits that we have been to, so we have got a wee bit to draw on.

"I would say that there are two or three key things [we are hoping to capitalise on]. One of them is mistakes on the track, and we again saw it in the first two qualifying sessions where a couple of Peugeots have gone through gravel traps.

"Another aspect is pitstop mistakes, and our guys are generally very good in the pits. And then what we are able to do in terms of race-pace lap times in all these circumstances.

"It's going to be a much tighter fight than it looked on the first night because if you just looked at the result sheet, you would think it is a one-way battle."

Q. Is there a temptation for you guys to want to go out and give your best shot in qualifying, just to see where you are in comparison?

AM: "From a driving point-of-view there is always that temptation, because as a racing driver you just cannot accept that you are five and a half seconds from pole position. So you want to go out and prove it and go to the absolute limits of everything to get much closer. Just for peace of mind.

"The reality is that would waste half and hour and we've only got four before the race, so it's too much of a loss. The other thing is that we're not going to move up any higher than fourth on the grid, so there is no point."

Q. What does the circuit seem like at the moment?

AM: "Well actually the circuit wasn't very good. I did an out and an in-lap about 1945 and it didn't feel like it had much grip but the laptimes were very good. The two didn't correlate. It was really bizarre.

"I keep thinking back to 1998, and we qualified slower than I managed on a damp track with intermediate tyres [in the pre-test] - and we had qualifying tyres and big restrictors then.

"And also the LMP2 time was what we did with the Toyota in 1999! It just shows you the pace of performance moving forward. And that's not straight-line speed performance, it's braking and cornering."

Q. What is that down to?

AM: "It has a lot to do with tyres. They are so much better than they ever were before and we are getting so much out of them. When you have two or three tyre manufacturers in competition, pushing development forward, it's the fastest way to improve everything."

Q. There are a lot of conversations about how fast the cars are going, are they reaching a level where they need to be capped again?

AM: "I said before that Peugeot wouldn't do a 3:18 because I didn't think they had it in them, so I would be disappointed if they went any faster. We have got to be realistic about it, this circuit is a fast circuit. You've got long straights and high-speed corners so therefore you have got fast laptimes.

"If anything happens like it did at Monza at a high speed, or like it did to Hideki Noda in qualifying yesterday, then it's going to be quite a big accident. It's obviously a concern for everybody that we've had a few accidents and rolls, and Noda's looked like it started just by a spin to me. None of the drivers want to see that.

"We have got an eye it, and I'm sure the ACO has got a very big eye on it. But they have got a very difficult balance as well. They have got to sort the circuit regulations, but they have also got to look after driver safety, and also to try and make sure that the manufacturers don't have to redesign and develop completely new cars.

"For any manufacturers that are looking to come in next year, they have got to pretty much down the line with their design and build by now, and that is where the delicate balance is. I don't know the answer, but I know that none of us like to see these situations at all."

Q. There have been six of these incidents now since Sebring haven't there?

AM: "Well, they've all been at high-speed tracks and they've all been for different reasons. They have had the same effect, but they have all gone sideways for totally different reasons, whether it be a puncture, a spin or a technical failure.

"So it has all been completely different until the car has gone sideways at high speed. Until today, and probably the pre-test, I was of the opinion it was just a small spate, but there seems to be more of them. The more there are the more people will focus on it and then action will be taken one way or another.

"Ultimately it has to because it is not good for anybody."